


For Old Times' Sake

by XylophoneCat



Series: Tumblr Prompts [3]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: High School Reunion, M/M, Makeup, Making up & Making out, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 14:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15098570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XylophoneCat/pseuds/XylophoneCat
Summary: Highschool reunion auSid and Geno meet again, many years later, and take a bittersweet trip down memory lane.





	For Old Times' Sake

Sid didn’t know a single person in that gym that night. Sure, they had the same names and the same-ish faces as the kids he’d grown up with, but everything else had changed. Guys who he remembered as loud and brash had mellowed into respectable adults, complete with grey suits and square haircuts. The shrill girls who had teased him on the playground were now women who smiled coyly when Sid looked their way. Even Grayson Dales had managed to creep out of his shell, and was now holding court over a small gaggle of admirers, telling them all about his revolutionary work in robotics. Everyone had moved on with their lives, leaving behind the trials and trauma of high school.

Sid looked down into the plastic cup of spiked punch in his hand as Mandy Weiss told him all about her second divorce. It looked exactly like the stuff they’d served at all the school dances and Sid wondered if they had changed the recipe at all since the nineties. Apart from the addition of rum, of course.

He nodded along to the tales of Mandy’s woes and debated with himself how rude it would be to just excuse himself and get another drink. He was about to give in when a new cup appeared at his elbow.

“You look like you need this,” said a warm voice in his ear.

“Thanks,” said Sid, taking the cup and turning to face a much older, but still gorgeous, Evgeni Malkin. He had come a long way from the lanky kid that Sid remembered, with his fumbling hands and lips, and nervous cracking voice. He was still lanky, but there was power in his shoulders now. A hard edge that wasn’t there before. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

“How have you been?” Geno asked. Sid shrugged.

“Been alright. Life, you know.”

They filled each other in in bits and pieces. Geno was coaching hockey now, Sid was teaching elementary school kids. They were both surprised that the other hadn’t settled down, each thinking the other too much of a family person not to. Sid was trying to write a book, Geno had gotten into coding. It was a strange condensing of their lives so far, and Sid found it uncomfortable that so few of the things he had happening in his life stood out as important. He took another mouthful of punch, understanding now why it had been supplied in it’s strongest form.

“Do you want to take a quick sightseeing trip?” Geno asked suddenly. “Revisit sites of old glories.”

Sid snorted. “If by old glories, you mean the time I staple gunned my hand to the desk in woodworking, then sure.”

“That works too,” Geno hummed, leading the way out of their old gym, weaving around the cliques of not-really-friends.

Even after eight years of teaching, Sid still found empty schools unsettling in a way that had built itself deep in his gut and refused to budge. It was stupid, and he knew it was stupid, but the way the waxed floors reflected the dim light and made the corridors look longer and darker than they really were completely bypassed the rational core of his brain, and spoke straight to the anxious little monkey that gibbered in the back.

He peered into the classrooms as they passed, so familiar with the same desks that they used to sit at. The displays on the walls could have been the same for all Sid could remember. Further down the hall Geno shouted in recognition.

“Found our old lockers, Sid,” he said with more enthusiasm than Sid felt the situation warranted. He stopped at the locker that used to be his, opposite the locker that used to be Geno’s. It was the same eyesore shade of blue as it had always been.

“They never did get the scratches out,” he said, running his thumb over the F that had been carved deep into the metal.

“Kids are horrible,” said Geno, leaning over his shoulder. He was so close Sid could feel the heat of his body. “They were horrible to you.”

Sid briefly wondered what Geno would do if he just leaned back against him. Would he wrap his arms around him like he used to, warm and solid and present? More likely he would gently push him away. They were different people now, Sid had to remind himself.

“Do you ever regret it?” he asked instead. “Dating me back then?”

“Regret that I let what people thought about me get between us,” Geno said easily. “I regret giving you up too easily. Never regret you.”

“You broke my heart, you know that?”

“Yeah.”

They set off down the corridor again, a little slower, a little heavier. They passed the woodshop and Sid wiggled his hand a Geno with a smile. The twin puncture marks had never faded.

“This my favourite corridor,” Geno declared as they took a right into the maths department and Sid frowned.

“You hated maths, why- oh.”

Geno had tried the handle on the janitor’s closet and it had swung open with barely a murmur. Even after all these years, they still didn’t lock it. Geno waggled his eyebrows at Sid.

“Sites of former glories, eh?” Sid asked drily.

Geno stepped towards him, face alight with a mischievousness that had Sid feeling like he was seventeen again, before he had his heart stomped in the passenger seat of Geno’s old ford. He let Geno take his hand, his long fingers wrapping around his wrist and tugging him closer. Geno ducked in close and Sid felt his pulse kick up as Geno brought his mouth to his ear.

“You’re still the prettiest girl in school,” he whispered and Sid burst into surprised laughter, letting himself step further into Geno’s arms. Geno grinned down at him and wrapped his arm around Sid’s waist, anchoring them together. “I missed you,” he said.

“I missed you too,” Sid smiled, and kissed him.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr @fourthlinefic


End file.
